Pro 7 Plus, then it is in such a black matte finish.
If we evaluate the design of the smartphone and its packaging, it becomes clear that Meizu really wants to get away from the image of cheap smartphones somewhere in the premium segment. I'm not sure if this is a good idea for the company as a whole, because premium means high price tags, and we already see Meizu prices creeping up, but ... But at least the Pro 7 Plus packaging does not look like competitive models, and it is interesting to twist it in hands. The outer case is made of hard plastic with black cardboard boxes inside. The smartphone is inserted into one of the boxes, like a cartridge into an old game console.
What's in the box
The package bundle of the device, as for a flagship smartphone, is rather poor. There is a powerful charger, a decent case for the back cover and ... in general, everything. Although for Meizu Pro 7 Plus they could at least put good headphones.
Even in the box with the Meizu Pro 7 Plus, a VIP card with a unique number was found, but, unfortunately, it is not yet clear why it is needed and what benefits it will give to the owners of the devices. Offhand, the idea is interesting, especially if you remember that Meizu opens fan clubs around the world and holds parties for fans. Maybe the company will really become generous with some real bonuses for its “VIPs”. Or maybe not generous - even Meizu's regional offices do not yet have exact information on the cards.
As in hand
Of course, Meizu Pro 7 Plus is not suitable for one-handed operation. Such dimensions. But Meizu designers at least made their “shovel” non-slip and more or less grip due to sloping sides and narrow frames on the sides of the display. Well, plus to this, the notification curtain in the Flyme shell is pulled out with a swipe anywhere, you don’t need to stretch your finger to the very top.
I don’t want to talk about the location of connectors and buttons for a long time, everything is standard. But you can praise for the preserved 3.5 mm audio jack and scold for one speaker. For a flagship, they could be generous on stereo.
Well, the Meizu universal button still helps a lot. If it were a smartphone from another manufacturer with three buttons, such a “shovel” would have to be constantly twisted in the hands. But since everything is tied to one button, both "Back" and "Home", Meizu Pro 7 Plus is at least somehow ergonomic and easy to operate.
Take off the "fingers"
It is quite difficult to get used to the operation of the fingerprint scanner after other smartphones. And I'm not talking about reading speed, I'm talking about convenience. To unlock the screen, you need to press the hardware button and hold your finger a little so that the sensor has time to read the fingerprint. At the same time, if you hold your finger a little longer than necessary, the phone will call the voice assistant.
Screen
I liked the large 5.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels. The maximum brightness could be higher, and the minimum a little lower, but the colors are normal and by default the color reproduction is close to neutral with a slight bias towards warm colors.
You can adjust the color reproduction by either choosing one of the four presets, or tweaking the slider to suit your tastes. There is also a “Night mode” with a schedule so that in the dark your eyes do not get tired of reading endless social network feeds.
Overall, the Meizu Pro 7 Plus has a good flagship screen. Moderately bright, with normal color reproduction. However, there are questions about the display resolution. Well, to be honest: why? A 2K screen outside of virtual reality is of little use. And since Meizu doesn't have its own headset or VR content store yet, I doubt anyone will buy the Meizu Pro 7 Plus for their $15 Chinese VR glasses. So why all this riot of pixels? Meizu could easily put a Full HD screen, as in just Pro 7, and cut down a little hype on excellent results in synthetic performance tests. Oh, and the battery lasts longer...
Second screen
Having told why the second screen of the Meizu Pro 7 Plus is needed, we did not dwell on how it works in order to wait for the final smartphone with the final firmware. We waited. Alas, the screen still does not work perfectly, sometimes not responding to the touch of your fingers. I even deduced a pattern: if the camera does not wake up from one vertical swipe, as instructed, make two very fast swipes in a row. Then the camera will definitely start.
Again, the very idea of the second screen seems to me very successful. And now it’s not even a “selfie” on the main camera and not a pedometer. Meizu gave us all a working tool that will show itself if it doesn't turn out to be a disposable topic like. And this somehow revives the market, which, it would seem, has already been buried forever under a shaft of faceless smartphones. More such boring solutions!
How it works
We have already said everything about the MediaTek Helio X30 processor in the first video. This is really a top-end processor that carries any tasks and heats up moderately under load. Heating the battery up to 50 degrees and the case up to 40 degrees is nothing compared to previous top-end MediaTek processors. And for the market as a whole, this is a very good indicator.
Games, applications - MediaTek Helio X30 pulls everything, and the average user will not notice the difference with any Snapdragon 835 at all. Moreover, in the case of Meizu Pro 7 Plus, there is simply no shortage of RAM and permanent memory and there are simply no bottlenecks.More sophisticated users, of course, blame the graphics accelerator (in vain), and the results in synthetics for the Helio X30 are not top-end, but this does not affect the real scenarios for using smartphones.
But with the younger model, everything is not so good. I don’t understand how to be the owners of the youngest Pro 7, for which the MediaTek Helio P25 processor is responsible, especially if the thought is spinning in my head that the recently introducedreceived a chip from Qualcomm. I'm sure that Meizu just became a prisoner of Mediatek in this situation, but what will the fans say about this? That's the main question. In general, the younger Meizu Pro 7 Plus is the case when saving a couple of rubles for the buyer is a very bad idea. If you decide to take this smartphone, take it with Helio X30 on board.
Although with Helio X30, not everything is “Thank God”. As we mentioned in the first video, this hardware platform does not support LTE Band 20, so high-speed Internet will fall off in many regions.
What does he think
The smartphone runs on the new version of the Flyme 6.0 operating system, and we have already dedicated a separate video to it. In short: this is an interesting shell, with original control ergonomics.
The Meizu Pro 7 Plus that came to us worked on Chinese firmware, where Google services are absent as a class, and they cannot be installed even from Chinese application stores. The situation was saved by w3bsit3-dns.com, from where I downloaded the Google Play APK file and then installed everything I needed. If you don’t want to bother like that, you have a direct road to the officials. Well, or to competitors - this is a matter of personal choice.
How to play
With the quality of music playback, the Meizu flagships have always been very good, and the Meizu Pro 7 / Pro 7 Plus is no exception. Both versions of the smartphone have a professional dedicated audio chip Cirrus Logic CS43130 with a built-in headphone amplifier. As a result, Meizu Pro 7 Plus plays music perfectly, delivering powerful and rich sound. Detailing is also excellent - all vocal nuances and background sounds are perfectly audible. Therefore, it is extremely important to take good on-ear headphones with your smartphone.
One speaker, medium volume and average quality. No, mid frequencies and partially high frequencies are transmitted perfectly and the volume margin is not bad. But ultra-low frequencies were not predictable, and there could have been more midbass. Still, the flagship. Still, musical. Still PREMIUM!!!111
And, of course, the bottom end is not the best place for a single speaker. During games, I constantly covered it with my hand.
How much does it hold?
A top-end processor, a large 2K screen, an audio chip with an amplifier - all these are very expensive components for a battery. However, the built-in 3,500 mAh battery holds up very well. And here again it is necessary to praise the Helio X30 platform, in which energy consumption is well optimized. With the screen brightness set to 60%, the smartphone lost only 10% of the charge in half an hour of playing tanks.
At the same time, it took 9% on OnePlus 5 for the same half an hour with the same settings. An excellent result for the Media Library, especially considering that the Meizu Pro 7 Plus has a higher resolution! In real-world scenarios, the Meizu Pro 7 Plus holds a charge a little less than the OnePlus 5. You can expect about a day of battery life with a mixed load, or even a little more.
Also pleased with fast charging mCharge 4.0, which fully replenishes the charge in an hour, and in the first fifteen minutes gives + 35% to the battery.
Here are the exact figures for fast charging:
15 minutes - 35%
30 minutes - 69%
45 minutes - 90%
60 minutes - 95%
Full charge time: 1 hour, 6 minutes
Camera
The main camera received two Sony IMX386 modules with ƒ / 2.0 optics and dual flash. It focuses quickly, all the necessary “fashionable” trends like shooting 4K video and portrait mode are observed. In general, the Meizu Pro 7 Plus camera shoots at an excellent flagship level. Of course, there are some peculiarities here. For example, the background in portrait mode is blurred too aggressively - although it turns out spectacular, it is very far from “real” optical bokeh.
But just looking at the photos is not interesting. Let's better compare the shots from the Meizu Pro 7 Plus with one of the best Android smartphones of this year, OnePlus 5. The results are interesting and mixed. In landscape shots, you can see how Meizu tints photos and lifts up contrast. At the same time, in terms of detail, Meizu is somewhat inferior to OnePlus 5, which produces clear pictures with natural colors more often.
Shot on Meizu Pro 7 Plus:
Shot on OnePlus 5:
Shot on Meizu Pro 7 Plus:
Shot on OnePlus 5:
But in portrait shots, skin tone and texture are better conveyed by the Meizu Pro 7 Plus. It is a pity that the background at the same time Meizu blurs well, very much.
Meizu Pro 7 Plus:
Shot with OnePlus 5:
These and other photos and videos can be downloaded in original quality from this link.
Shooting video
We continue to compare Meizu Pro 7 Plus with OnePlus 5. Here are two videos recorded on the same day, one after the other. Pay attention to the work of the noise reduction near the fountain and the stabilization of the frame when walking - according to these parameters, the OnePlus 5 did much better.
Front camera
It was worth saying on the video that “selfies” in Pro 7 can be taken on the main camera and, therefore, the front camera is no longer needed, as subscribers immediately criticized us to the nines. It's amazing that so many people still use video, even with our super-high-quality mobile Internet. However, the front camera of the Meizu Pro 7 Plus is really good. With autofocus, 16MP sensor and ƒ/2.0 lens. So it pulls both video calls and photos easily. But it’s better to turn off all these fashionable skin improvement algorithms right away - they blur the skin too unnaturally.
Competitors
In my opinion, the most obvious alternative to Meizu Pro 7 is OnePlus 5. Yes, it has a smaller screen and worse sound in headphones, but the price is lower and the processor is much more interesting. We will make a separate material based on the long experience of using OnePlus 5, but now we can say that this smartphone has outgrown childhood illnesses, and for its money it remains an extremely tasty offer.
Specifications
Net :
4G FDD-LTE: B1/B3/B5/B7
4G TDD-LTE: B38/B39/B40/B41
3G WCDMA: B1/B2/B5/B8
3G CDMA: BC0
3G TD-SCDMA: B34/B39
2G GSM:B2/B3/B8/B5
Display: 5.7", 2560 x 1440, Super AMOLED;
Second display: 1.9" 240×536 AMOLED;
Platform: Helio X30 processor, (ten cores, 2.6GHz, 10nm) IMG PowerVR 7XTP graphics;
RAM: 6 GB LPDDR4X;
DAC: Cirrus Logic CS43130;
Memory: 64/128 GB (UFS 2.1);
OS: Android 7.0 Nougat shell Flyme 6;
2 nanoSIM cards;
Main camera : Two 12 MP Sony IMX386 sensors with f/2.0 optics, dual flash;
Front-camera: 16 MP, ƒ/2.0;
Battery : 3500 mAh non-removable
Fingerprint scanner;
Dimensions : 157.34 x 77.24 x 7.3mm
Weight: 170 grams.
Advantages
- Interesting design
- Large bright screen with excellent color reproduction
- Powerful hardware
- Convenient operating system Flyme OS
- Audiophile-quality music through headphones
- Support fast charging technology
- High quality photos
Disadvantages
- High price
- No stereo speakers
- No optical stabilization in video
CV
In short, the flagship at Meizu turned out. The iron drags, the operating system works stably, the camera is quite a flagship level. The sound in the headphones is simply amazing. And, most importantly, he is not boring. Cool second screen gives us new interesting scenarios and enlivens the design of the smartphone.
But there is also a problem. Price. Given the abundance of smartphones on the market, it will be difficult for Meizu to explain why you need to buy the Pro 7 Plus, and also pay about 50 euros more for it. I'm afraid many will not make such sacrifices and simply buy the same OnePlus 5.
So we are waiting for discounts on Meizu Pro 7 Plus.
Where to buy
Many people asked how it happened that in Ukraine Meizu Pro 7 and Meizu Pro 7 Plus are sold cheaper than on Aliexpress. I found out: this is an initiative of Ukrainian officials. They really sell these smartphones on pre-orders cheaper than the recommended price, and when sales open, the Ukrainian price will be raised to the Chinese one.
And wherever you buy this smartphone, or any other, you can return a percentage of the purchase using Cashback -
